Out of Wack
by AdventureAddict
Summary: Postmovie oneshot. As they walk, Ed begins to notice how much he and Al have changed over the years. As if they had become the other to fill the hole in their life. Of course, Ed wants to know what's wrong with his brother.


It was strange, Ed noted amusedly as he and Al walked side by side down the road. It was strange how a bit of time apart could change people so much, and in such opposite ways. While he, Ed, had gotten calmer and tended to think more before he leapt nowadays, Al seemed to anger more easily and rushed into things without thinking much more often. It certainly wasn't like how Ed had remembered Al to be. It was almost as if they had partly become the other in order to fill for the gap that had appeared in their lives.

But somehow Ed knew that wasn't true either. He had been heading towards this change by himself, he knew, with or without Al he would have eventually become more mature and calm. And Al didn't seem like the type to adopt an entirely different personality just because someone he loved wasn't around. Then again, there were a lot of things nowadays that Al was surprising Ed with. Things where he had figured Al would never do, only to have Al go storming past him just to do the exact thing Ed thought he wouldn't. It was completely baffling at times.

And then there was the issue of girls. Back in his younger years Ed had ignored them almost entirely, and he was aware and content with doing that. But now he was more open to the new world he had never explored in their own world, only to discover that he knew absolutely nothing about girls. He had turned to Al for advice on the matter, remembering how Al had been perfectly fine with the idea of a relationship with a girl back in their teen years.

But instead Al had ended up snapping at him over it. At first Ed thought that it might have been in a sour mood, but when he asked about it again, Al snapped in the same way as before, and Ed began to suspect that Al had a crush on some girl without him knowing about it. But when he had asked Al about it, Al had gotten even angrier and refused to civilly talk to Ed for hours. Ed had learned from the experience not to bring up the topic women after that and settled for trying to learn about it on his own instead.

And as if all that wasn't enough, Al had gotten much pickier in his food. Ed couldn't ever remember Al pitching a fuss over pork because he 'didn't like it' or even better, turning his nose up at steak, one of his favorites, just because they'd had it earlier that week. It had been a relatively lucky week, for once, and Ed had figured that Al would usually eat the steak and enjoy their streak of good luck at least to be polite, not outright refuse to even touch it. It was so… un-Al-like.

Ed was learning quickly to expect the unexpected with Al.

Ed sighed and looked up at the sky before turning to look over at his brother walking beside him. Al seemed to be scowling at nothing in particular, and walking heavily down the street. Ed smiled to himself and shook his head. If they hadn't gotten rid of the old red coat and trimmed Al's hair, he would have laughed at the thought that he had traveled back in time to see himself walking down the street in a huff.

But this was Al, not Ed. Al didn't behave like that. Al was calm and cool, he was the one to hold Ed back if someone called him short. Now Ed found that he was holding himself back at the short comments, and needing to grab Al if people happened to laugh good-naturedly at his still young-looking face. They didn't mean any harm, of course, but Al always seemed to take it the wrong way.

Ed sighed and folded his hands behind his head, trying to figure out what to do with his brother. They were in Germany now, without alchemy and while the faces of people might be similar, the people weren't the same anymore. Everything was so different and new, including Al, and truth be told, Ed was getting sick of it. Through all their years together, Al had been the one thing Ed had always known he could depend on to remain the same, no matter what seemed to happen to them. Now Al was surprising him daily, and Ed didn't know if he was supposed to expect anything to stay the same anymore. He just wanted his brother back.

Besides, it wasn't like Al had changed that much over the time they had spent apart. Sure, he had aged a bit, which had surprised Ed at first, but he had quickly gotten used to it. Al had been frozen in time in that armor for years, of course he was going to start aging now, Ed realized with a silent laugh. And now he was only in his mid-teens while Ed was…

Ed suddenly stopped and realized what he had just thought. Al was still in his mid-teens. He was barely introduced to the world of teenagers at all. Sure, he had grown mentally while they had traveled around the country, but he didn't have a body to age with him. Which meant one thing…

Poor Al was finally getting introduced to the wonderful world of puberty.

Ah. Now that would explain it. Ed had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing as he though back to all the wonderful memories he associated with puberty. No wonder Al was irritable and unpredictable. Ed then sighed and realized that if anyone needed someone constant to lean on, it would be Al, not him. Equivalent Exchange, right? Al had been his rock, and now Ed had to be Al's.

"Hey, Al?" Ed started slowly, looking over at his brother.

"What?" Al scowled, not looking up from the road or lightening his heavy steps. Ed sighed and reminded himself to stay calm.

"You know I love you, right?"

Al stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Ed. Ed just smiled at Al and shrugged, inwardly relieved that Al's face seemed to have lightened a bit. A bit.

"I do, you know," Ed said with a grin. "And I'm always going to. You won't be getting rid of me anytime soon. You should call me Barnacle instead of Brother." He grinned at the laugh that earned from Al. All it would take was a bit of persistence. He was sure that Al could get through this.

The two then turned and continued on their walk again, neither of them saying anything else. But now a lighter silence hung between them, as if nothing _had _to bed said. Ed nodded his head approvingly. Not that was the relationship he had grown used to over the years.

Al just needed a rock to be there for him for a little while, just as much as Ed had needed him those years ago. After the damn puberty had its fun, Ed was sure Al would be fine. Until then, Ed would be the Al among them. He knew that he could now handle being the calm one that grounded the two of them, the one that thought before he acted and made sure the other one didn't get out of control. The older brother. Ed grinned at the thought and shoved his hands into his pockets approvingly. But he also knew that once Al was back to normal, he would go back to being the more reckless between them, and the natural order would be restored to the cosmos once more.

And that would be a glorious day indeed, Ed laughed silently.


End file.
